Friday, July 17, 1998 Last modified at 2:23 a.m. on Friday, July 17, 1998

Tin Cups On All Sides

IT HAS BECOME a rather familiar practice in the United States these days for an individual who is in the public eye and embroiled in controversy to attempt to get other people to pay his or her legal bills.

Oliver North collected a large amount in donations for his legal defense fund several years ago. Stacey Koon, one of the Los Angeles police officers who were prosecuted for the Rodney King beating, is another example of someone who benefited from a legal defense fund.

More recently, President Clinton has had such a fund. In fact, he has had two of them.

His first one was shut down last December by the fund's trustees after donations slowed down to a trickle because of the controversy about the Clinton administration's fund-raising practices.

However, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a new Clinton defense fund was born earlier this year.

Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern who has been scrutinized this year about her relationship with President Clinton and her testimony under oath about it, also has a legal defense fund.

Tripp's legal expenses have reached $100,000

And here is another one: Linda Tripp, the friend of Ms. Lewinsky who secretly tape recorded conversations in which Ms. Lewinsky claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Mr. Clinton, has her very own legal defense fund.

In the case of Ms. Tripp, it is harder to understand why she needs a defense fund.

A state prosecutor in Maryland said last week that he was conducting a probe regarding whether Ms. Tripp's secret tape recordings violated state law, but she has not been charged and we doubt that she will be.

However, she has made appearances as a witness before grand juries, including one this week. And we understand that she needed to hire attorneys to represent her interests, both in the grand jury matters and elsewhere.

But, even though legal expenses can mount up fast, we were surprised to see the estimate by one of her attorneys this week that Ms. Tripp's legal bills have reached about $100,000.

Regardless of which side you believe in the Zippergate scandal, there is someone holding a tin cup out, hoping to get other people to pay for their legal bills.

But, as we have noted in the past, this is America. And everyone has an equal right to try get handouts.

A handout requires someone who is willing to give as well as someone who is eager to take. Will the givers continue to write checks for as long as this case is likely to take to play out? Maybe, but we tend to doubt that they will.